During their residency period at Makan, London based artists Eileen Simpson and Ben White continued to explore ways in which the philosophy underpinning open source software can be mapped onto creative production, looking at methods of free distribution and unlimited access, in contrast to many traditional models of art production: closed distribution and the limited edition.Whilst in residence at Makan, Eileen and Ben were researching Jordanian copyright and working with material that had fallen into the public domain. They worked with an out-of-copyright Jordanian film to create a new version for free distribution and are hoping to remix recordings of traditional Jordanian music to produce a new copyleft licensed CD (licensed Creative Commons, Jordan) in collaboration with musicians in Amman.
The residency is a cooperation between Makan and Gasworks, for more information:
www.gasworks.org.uk/international/
www.gasworks.org.uk

Bio

Eileen Simpson and Ben White often work outside the gallery, preferring to work in other public spaces: on-line, in clubs, magazines, shops and cinemas. Recently they established Open Music Archive http://www.openmusicarchive.org a collaborative initiative to source, digitise and distribute out of copyright sound recordings. Their recent projects include: Outlet, (Coleman’s Project Space, London) Nought-to-Sixty (ICA, London); Declose (Disclosures, Gasworks, London); Stop. Move (Loose Booty, London/Geneva/Zurich); Clips Blips and Loops (Who Makes And Owns Your Work, Stockholm); Free-to-air (Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK); Screen Tests (in collaboration with Marysia Lewandowska & Neil Cummings British Art Show 6), and Leverage (Futuresonic, Manchester)